Do you already have a news website with relevant, updated information on a current event? If so, you may be wondering how to submit an article to Google News?
What is Google News?
According to TechWyse, Google News is a database of over 25,000 news websites around the world. It combines all the reputable news sources and provides users with a one-stop place to get all their news. After an interview with Google, The Atlantic reported in 2012 that 1 billion users access articles through Google News on a weekly basis, that’s a lot!
Launched in 2006, it uses a specific algorithm to provide users with the latest pertinent news stories. When someone is searching for certain news stories, it’s easy, they go to Google, click on news and search for the subject matter they want.
What are the Benefits of Having Your Articles on Google News?
More people visiting your website: Some people have specific news sites that they look at daily. However, when someone is searching for news on a specific topic, they are likely to search on Google News. If you can get your articles to show up in the search results, and your subject matter is something of interest to people, you will get more traffic to your website.
Makes you more credible: Websites need to be approved prior to showing on the Google news website. Because of this, when your website shows up, it gives you more credibility. People know that not just anyone can write something, and have it show up in the database.
Helps with the SEO of your website: When we write articles online, be it news, blogs, or reviews, we want our site to have a strong presence on Google’s main search engine as well. Having it appear on Google News means that more people will link to your article giving it a stronger presence on search engines.
How to Submit an Article to Google News:
Alan Fordyce Internet Media, a Kent SEO firm, advises that before going any further, check to make sure that your website is not already there. You can easily do this by going to the Google News website and searching for the name of your website. If it shows up, you’re good to go and nothing else needs to be done.
If you are not there already, you will have to submit your news site to Google for review. They have a very simple form to fill out. This form will ask you to write a short description of your page, the URL, geographic information, and what category it falls into.
Before submitting your site for review, have a look at the guidelines and make any changes to your website. This will ensure that your site respects what Google is looking for, giving you a better chance of being accepted.
What are the Google News General Guidelines?
Google provides us with a list of general guidelines for articles posted in Google News. If you don’t follow these rules, not only could you article be removed, your entire website could be blacklisted as well. These are the general rules that need to be followed:
- Write about current events. Job postings, how-to blogs, or strictly informational articles are not permitted. In addition, news articles are not meant to be used to sell or promote products or companies.
- Have unique content. You can’t just copy articles from other news sites and just change a few words here and there.
- Be transparent. Having a short biography and contact information on your site is important. You want to be accountable for what you write.
- Be honest about who you are. It is important not to hide, or distort information about who you are, your goals, and where you’re from.
- Don’t bombard your page with advertisements. Paid advertisements should never be more prominent than the content you are presenting.
- Do not focus on search engine optimization. You may, or may not work with SEO techniques for your page, but your focus should be on the reader and what information they want. A good way to evaluate this is to ask yourself if the information you are providing is helpful to your readers.
What Should Be Avoided?
In the SEO world, there are many techniques that people use to improve their listing in search engines. When it comes to Google News, they have a set of guidelines you need to avoid if you want to maintain your listing on Google News. Here are some examples:
Automatically generated content: When something is automatically generated, it shows. This includes, but is not limited to, tools used to translate articles automatically.
Cloaking: This is when you show different content to the users than what you show to the Googlebot. Matt Cutts provides us with a video that contains a detailed explanation of what cloaking is.
Scraped Content: This means taking information found on other sites, and adding it to your site. The content can be copied directly, or a few words may be changed here or there to make it appear “unique”. Not only does Google not allow this practice, but it can also be a copyright infringement.
Having your article appear on Google News will be very beneficial in providing you with more traffic, and increase your credibility. However, to maintain that privilege, you need to follow the rules and guidelines set by Google.